Chapter 2: Metrics

Building Blocks Of A New Science

We believe that it is not possible to develop a science of Information Security—without first establishing an observational science that identifies what we are dealing with in the first place (i.e. recognition of particular security-related things/events and subsequent definition of object/process classes etc). Ergo, we become able to know what kinds of phenomena to look for, measure, model and control etc. QED.

Accordingly, in this section we begin our new cybersecurity science by establishing all necessary definitions, classifications, and (in particular) fundamental axioms etc.

Axiomatic Approach

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition of an Axiom:

A proposition that commends itself to general acceptance; a well-established or universally-conceded principle; a maxim, rule, law.

Logic. A proposition (whether true or false).

Logic and Math. ‘A self-evident proposition, requiring no formal demonstration to prove its truth, but received and assented to as soon as mentioned’ (Hutton).

As outlined on the back-cover of ‘The Science Of Cybersecurity’—presented here for the first time is a logical explanation of the fundamental theory and principal axioms of Cybersecurity as developed from first principles, and in a format ideally suited to both— the engineering-minded professional—and the less technically-oriented.

Communications Security

The British physicist Professor Donald MacKay (1922-1987) once said that the informational content of a message/representation consists of three components; metrical, descriptive, and selectional [1].

Accordingly, in terms of the point- to-point transfer of information units (datums) between two humans—or the one-to-one replication of meaning from a sender to receiver— we can differentiate between the information pattern that is sent (i.e the atomic, symbolic and/or metrical data being replicated—the digital 0s and 1s etc), and the descriptive and selectional capacity of the receiving system/human. In other words, the receiver engages in a process of interpretation by utilising his or her ‘beholder’s share’ [2].

Hence the meaning of a message is crucially dependent on the specific way(s) in which the receiver decodes and interprets the message. Ergo meaningful, effective and efficient communication between two parties depends upon a certain degree of synchronisation and agreement in terms of factors such as language, experience, truth, history, plus mode and context of the communication process itself.

Whereby it is important to realise that the entire subject matter of (communications) cybersecurity depends upon—and is (entirely) developed from— the axiomatic statements and principles presented in the previous three paragraphs. In sum, this paper (or section) is a characterisation of said axioms.

A Simple Question

We begin with a simple question—what is security—in-and-of-itself—and especially in terms of digital information sharing? In order to be able to formulate an answer we must narrow our eld of study—and concern ourselves solely with person- to-person (point-to-point) information transfer. We can differentiate this topic from all other information transfer types which involve either a source-point and/or end-point that is not a human being. Ignored methods include machine-to- machine, machine-to-person, and person-to- machine techniques.

In other words; we are not concerned with those cases where a computer initiates transfer(s) of information between machines, or does so automatically from machine to human or vice-versa.

Communication Of Meaning

A datum of any idea or thing is a pattern of meaning, an abbreviated description, definition or set of ‘facts’ concerning the thing in question; typically prescribing an event, object, feeling, etc.; in token of, as a sign, symbol, or evidence of something [Axiom 1].

Datums are typically expressed within the boundaries of a specific language, medium, media and/or code; and normally each datum has an inherent lifetime whereby it may be created, stored, communicated, replicated, lost and/or destroyed etc.

A private datum is accessible only by a restricted group of people—or a particular set of human beings; and is inaccessible to all other persons [Axiom 3.1].

A secret datum is accessible only by a single human being—typically the owner and often the author; and is inaccessible to all other persons [Axiom 3.2].

An open datum is (potentially) accessible by anyone—or by an unrestricted group of people [Axiom 3.3].

A communication system is a system or facility for transferring datum(s)/patterns-of-meaning between persons and equipment. The system usually consists of a collection of individual communication networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations and terminal equipment capable of interconnection and interoperation so as to form an integrated whole [Axiom 4].

Privacy And Security Defined

Prior to the widespread adoption of the Internet—information assurance concerned reliable data storage/processing. But today, whilst data backups and storage etc are vital, security is more often associated with data communications security— herein our primary concern.

Accordingly, in the present paper (or section) we shall explore just one of twelve possible security sub-system types (communication of private-datums): wherein we analyse transfer of private datum-copies existing on a point-to-point communication system (whilst super cially considering aspects of data storage and presentation wherever necessary). Other sub-system security measures may be necessary in a real system—and in order to protect standard computer processing, storage and presentation operations; and not only for private datums but for secret and open datums as well.

We ostensibly exclude from our discussion all systems of public information sharing (i.e. open- datums) and social networks whereby the information transfer is one-to-many, many-to-one or many-to-many (i.e. Facebook / Twitter).

Accordingly—SECURITY—for a person-to- person communication system—can be defined as: ‘protection of secrecy, privacy or openness of meaning; or the safe transfer of single/multiple datum(s) between human(s)’ [Axiom 5].

In this context—PRIVACY—implies that:

A communication system exists that connects humans together via socially restricted access-nodes;

The source datum (+ meta-data) is sent from sender to receiver node as a single or uniquely accessible copy;

Both access-nodes may serve as memory- nodes for the datum, so long as socially unique access is preserved;

The datum is protected from unwarranted social access (i.e. who can see, know & change it) by the system;

Protection of datum access is for specified place(s) and time(s) and to achieve a state of persisted privacy.

N.B. In this context—‘uniquely accessible’ refers to protection of Social Accessibility Status (or Privacy Status (i.e secret, private, or open status)) for the communicated datum; whereby (within the boundaries of) the communication system—no change(s) to the pre-existing privacy status can happen (it is immutable in terms of accessibility).

Real World And Virtual Accessibility

It is salient (for upcoming discussion(s)) to consider how we obtain access to any item in the real-world. To access an item, we:

Look for the item—or scan a scene—and in order to identify/delineate the desired thing and so to discover its whereabouts, form and/or precise location (whilst distinguishing it from background clutter). Next we:

Move towards the item—or a navigate a path to its location—before grasping/touching it (whilst avoiding any path-blocking objects and/or overcoming any movement difficulties present); and finally we:

INFORMATION SECURITY—sometimes shortened to InfoSec, as the practice of defending information (datums) from unauthorised access —including unapproved: inspection, use, copy, disclosure, disruption, modi cation, recording or destruction of said item(s). Cybersecurity is a general term that can be used regardless of the form the data may take (e.g. electronic, physical).

Cybersecurity is the (continuous) state of preventing unauthorised communication-system actors/intruder(s) from:

Locating the item; and/or

Grasping the item; and/or

Opening-up the item.

Accordingly, we now define a process of secure information transfer—that consists of private data shared during a one-to-one information replication. Our exposition defines (for the rst time) a comprehensive set of cybersecurity—definitions— and axiomatic first principles.

Let us now establish some logical truths.

Firstly, in summary, we can state that— SECURITY—for a private, secret and/or open datum is the preservation of social accessibility status (or privacy status)—by means of the explicit protection of said datum’s status. Protection implies the use of systems and procedures—both human and/or machine—to defend said privacy status.

Social Accessibility (Privacy) Status

Social Accessibility (Privacy) Status = The ability of a person to see, know and/or change a datum’s form and/or content [Axiom 6].

Security = Protect accessibility status of item.

Access = Find, contact and/or know an item.

Possess = Find (see/locate) plus contact (reach/grasp/hold) an item.

Protect = Lock, Block or Conceal an item [Axiom 7].

Privacy [cp. secrecy=datum is accessible by only one person]: A private-thought/datum is distributed/available to a limited number of people; and hence some form of social sharing (& trust), plus protection is implied; and in order to prevent it from morphing into an open-thought/datum (or partially open-thought/datum).

Protection Methods

In sum, to protect an item you may need to:

Lock—unsafe-actor(s) cannot open/know an item’s form/content.

Block—unsafe-actor(s) cannot reach/grasp an item’s form/content.

Conceal—unsafe-actor(s) cannot see/find an item’s form/content.

Note that within the concept/remit of locking an item; ofttimes there is a difference between having and knowing an item. Locking creates a gap/barrier or unbridgeable chasm—between possession and full access/understanding—for unauthorised parties—and especially in relation to the inner meaning of information.

Practical Security System

Now that we have established the fundamental theory of secure communication of meaning; we need to specify the basic features of a practical security system.

We begin by identifying a secret-datum (analogous to a secret-thought)—which has not yet left the source-point (or sender’s mind); and which is assumed to be unique in that nobody else can know (or discover) the precise form or content of the datum at the source-point. Once the datum arrives at the destination-point; then it is a private- datum; because it now exists—ostensibly solely—as an identical copy in both locations simultaneously (it is a private-thought).

As an aside, an open-datum is one that anyone may access—but open-thoughts/datums are not a subject of this paper. Note also that the terms private, secret and open thought, are simply analogues of the relevant datum types. Henceforth adjudging that a point-to-point communication is private and secure; is equivalent to saying that the original unit of meaning existing at the ‘source’ node has, as a result of the one-to- one replication, only one accessible copy—at the ‘receiver’ node.

Furthermore this copy is— unequivocally—accessible only by the (trusted) human for whom the communication was intended (i.e. it is access-controlled).

We call such a process single-copy-send—or socially secure communication [Axiom 8]—whereby the process of communication may itself be private (no public meta-data exists); and there is no possibility of any nth-party obtaining a copy of the communicated datum.

A party might be able to guess the informational contents of the datum—or presuppose that the sender/receiver parties possess it and/or have exchanged it—but that is altogether different from certain knowledge. Note that for a secret-datum socially secure communication restricts access to just one person. Hence the sender and receiver/viewer are the same person; and the system simply ‘memorises’ the datum.

In a like manner, open-datums are memorised by the system; but are then somehow made available to any party; which assumes that the system itself has a special kind of security (social accessibility protection) whereby said datum(s) are broadcast by means of the system to many/all humans. Implied here is that the system must be open-access or ubiquitous in terms of meaning dissemination.

It seems prudent—at this point—to ask another straight-forward question; specifically:

What is the nature—and architecture—of secure and private cyber-communication?

In actual fact—answering this pivotal question— will be the primary task of this short paper (or section). And in order to formulate an answer; it is necessary to first establish the key facets of the desired communication ‘chain’ between the parties who wish to exchange information in a secure fashion.

Datums And Datum-Copies

Summary of findings thus far:

Human Communication: Transfer of discrete package(s) of meaning—messages— between people; or the one-to-one replication of datum(s) between minds, plus nominal meta-data (perhaps).

Open Communication: Communication that protects socially open access for the replicated meaning—datum(s)—and also any meta-data for the communication process itself (perhaps).

Single-Copy-Send: Communication of a datum (+ meta-data) with guaranteed social security.

Addendum: Note that accurate determination of the (measured/judged + time-bound) social accessibility status (i.e. Privacy Status)—and its associated protection status or Security Status (for a datum-copy)—means judging whether (or not) an (ostensibly) private-datum is/has-been/can-be (i.e. at-present/ in-the-past/future) communicated with absolute or partial/absent security—and this may sometimes be difficult to achieve with any degree of confidence /assurance. Privacy Status (for a datum-copy) is the legitimate (but potentially transitory/changeable) social accessibility status (i.e secret, private, or open). Whereas Security Status (for a datum-copy) is a protected or unprotected Privacy Status, and accordingly may be known or unknown at any specific epoch—and is equivalent to the measured/judged privacy protection status.A datum-copy’s Privacy Status works together with its Security Status to perpetuate and defend the datum’s inner meaning.

Copy-Centric Metric

Accordingly, we are now in a position to characterise Information Security (or cybersecurity/ InfoSec) in terms of an interesting new copy-centric metric which is defined by a few simple questions:

How many copies are there?

Where are the copies?

Who can see, know and/or change a copy?

How long do copies hang around?

SCF 1.0 – InfoGraphic B

Replication Of A Primary Copy

Source: ‘The Science Of Cybersecurity’ (2017) – by Alan Radley

Addendum

It is vital to understand that for a Datum existing on any type of a network computer system; that only three kinds of Datum-Copy types are possible as follows:

PRIMARY COPY

A primary-copy is a place-holder for a private datum of meaning—existing within the boundaries of a point-to-point communication system; whose content and form are restricted in terms of social access (i.e who can see, know & change the same); whereby the datum is (ideally) communicated via single-copy-send from the source-point to any (and all) designated receiver-point(s) [Axiom 9].

SECONDARY COPY

A secondary-copy is a (communicated/backup) replication of a primary-copy—existing within (or outside) the boundaries of a point-to-point communication system—that may be legitimately produced by the communication process itself (e.g. a central server copy); and/or be illegitimately created as a result of the unwarranted activities of a hacker [Axiom 10]. Legitimate secondary copies are compatible with single-copy-send because—for example—a central- server network creates (ostensibly private) secondary copies to facilitate off-line data sharing/storage. Christian Rogan pointed out to me that the peer-to-peer primary communication copy is also (from one perspective) the true version/copy, which leads to another solution often described as Self-Aware, whereby the object (file or data) enforces its own security protocols/policies.

TERTIARY COPY

A tertiary-copy is a replication of a primary or secondary copy—which is generated post- communication by extracting datum(s) from a large body of communication data (e.g. a transatlantic data pipe) [Axiom 11]. Tertiary copies (whilst nefarious) are compatible with socially secure communication or single-copy-send—because for example—the datum-copies may be protected from unsafe-actors by means of strong encryption and/or coding etc.

References

Founding, building, and nurturing a Cybersecurity Science for everyone. We are a one-stop-shop for learning from—and contributing to—the latest findings and new scientific thinking emerging from the computer security community.

We extend a warm welcome to you, and an open invitation to get involved; no matter what your expertise level; and do contribute ideas, thoughts and experiences for the benefit of all.

SCIENCE OF CYBERSECURITY FRAMEWORK

In order to establish a logically coherent statement of basic theory, and to enable orderly progression of the same; we hereby define the Science Of Cybersecurity Framework (SCF).

Whereby, the SCF comprises all of the fundamental Cybersecurity axioms, principles, concepts, events and processes etc. The upshot is a complete characterisation of the entire subject matter of Information Security.

The purpose of the SCF is not to list, in an exhaustive fashion, every possible instance of a Cybersecurity failure/vulnerability and/or protective measure; but rather to define all of the logical elements that could possibly comprise the same. In other words, the SCF seeks to identify all of the universals of Cybersecurity, in the belief that any particulars will naturally follow.

WE NEED YOU!

Obviously development of a new science—is not the job of one person alone; but rather science can only arise, evolve and progress through consensus; and by the power of multiple brains.

Consequently, we invite members of the Cybersecurity community to get involved and contribute to this effort.

The Science of Cybersecurity – by Alan Radley (2017). Free digital edition is here, and the printed edition is on Amazon here.

Sample Reviews

Excellent read! Succinct and accurate on a subject that normally wanders into tangential discussions confusing and diffusing the goal… Radley breaks down today’s hottest topic in a way that provides reference to students as well as guidance to the more learned… I found it spot on and a fine addition to the body of work on cyber-security but specifically to the discussion of privacy within communications… I see this as a reference document for students studying cyber security as well as an excellent read for CTOs, CSOs, CISOs, and CEOs laboring over how to analyze their needs for increased security… allows you to hit the highlights or dive deeper into the subject with your many charts, diagrams, and glossary of terms.

Will no doubt be recognized as one of the seminal works on security, establishing definitions and clarity where others have dealt with assumptions… it is not very often that one is exposed to a work that is truly ground breaking in a field, but this is one of those works. Rather than expounding on the implementation of security as many do, Dr. Alan Radley astutely asks (and then suggests an answer for) the rather naive, yet deceptively complex question “What is security?”, or more precisely “How does one characterize a communication system for secure data transfer?” As Dr. Radley examines this question, the reader becomes aware that the answer is much more elusive than one first assumes.

As Dr. Radley builds a working compendium of definitions needed to examine the issue, the reader becomes more and more aware that the current vernacular is insufficient for discussing secure communication at a philosophical level, and if we cannot agree on what it means to be secure or private in thought, how can we accomplish it in act? It is here, laying the foundation of formal definition of socially secure communication, that Dr. Radley’s work is groundbreaking and will no doubt be referenced by many works to come.

As cyber education evolves to meet the pace of change in our digital world so does the need for good reference books.. a timely and spot on publication that I shall be recommending to my students; well done Dr Radley.

Professor Richard Benham – National Cyber Skills Centre, UK.

An excellent read and would definitely recommend this to our AISA members as a way to get a different perspective on security.

In a world full of privacy breaches, Radley timely develops a framework that delves into complexity of technical and human-centric factors that affect our perception of privacy and cybersecurity. I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in making our cyber world more secure.

Vitali Kremez (6/2/2016) – CyberCrime Investigative Analyst.

The book provides the reader with an accurate and objective view of the life-cycle of the exposures and vulnerabilities which are associated with the technological shadow cast over all individuals, and organisations. This is a unique piece of work… an excellent read, and deserves a place on every security professional’s bookshelf who is seeking a balanced and objective view of the current, and futuristic Cyber Security Landscape.

Professor John Walker – Nottingham Trent University.

Alan Radley makes sense of the complexities which ordinarily restrict this topic to IT people only… required reading for anyone focused on secure and private communication… What’s more, Alan’s no-nonsense approach and fearless honesty, is refreshing. I recommend this to those interested in making certain that their communication is more private, secure and resilient.

Bill Montgomery – CEO – Connect In Private.

A brilliant book! Did it make me wiser? Yes…

Pantazis Kourtis – Member of the Board of Directors at London Chapter at ISACA.

I commend this book to a wide readership. Well done Sir, more please.

Tony Collings OBE -Chairman – The ECA Group.

A very concise body of work, that belies its length for the practical application of useful data in a highly complex area… should be required reading for anyone providing third party services whereby their security claims cannot be held up without transparency. Ignore this work at your peril.

Christian Rogan – Vice President, Royal Holloway Enterprise Centre.

I highly recommend this book for individuals interested in understanding the challenges facing the security and information assurance specialist. Dr. Radley’s direct approach provides an excellent read and can enable valuable insights into an extremely complex topic such as security.

What Kind Of A Science Is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is impossible to develop as a logical subject of study—without first establishing an observational science that identifies what we are dealing with in the first place.

Ergo, we become able to know what kinds of phenomena to look for, measure, model and control. Thus we define a set of Absolute Security metrics—and accordingly fully prescribe the various classes/types of Cybersecurity vulnerabilities—plus evolve truly effective countermeasures… >>

Avoid Hacking And data-Breaches With KeyMail

‘Cloud’ copies are highly vulnerable to hacking; largely because they will be around for a very long time—possibly forever—and as a result may be subject to innumerable future hacking attacks.

For Absolute Security in interpersonal communications, the KeyMail file-transfer protocol eliminates ‘cloud’ copies altogether; whereby client data transfers directly between devices. We call this Single-Copy-Send—and the upshot is that there are no vulnerable ‘third-party’ copies to attack, and hence no hacking risks… >>